Biography

Pianist Angela Hewitt continues to captivate and charm audiences around the world with her musicianship and virtuosity. Since her triumph in the 1985 Toronto International Bach Piano Competition, and her subsequent Bach recording for Deutsche Grammophon, Miss Hewitt has been hailed as "the Bach pianist par excellence of her generation" (The Sunday Times, London, 1999), and "nothing less than the pianist who will define Bach performance on the piano for years to come" (Stereophile, 1998). In 1994, she embarked on a ten-year project to record all of the major keyboard works by Bach for the Hyperion label. The Inventions, French Suites, Partitas, the complete Well-Tempered Clavier, and now the Goldberg Variations are receiving worldwide acclaim for their artistry, "effortlessly eclipsing all competitors" (Gramophone, 1997). Both Book I and Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier has been chosen as among the Top 50 CDs of 1999 in BBC Music Magazine, and were also highlighted in Gramophone's Critic's Choice. Book I received a Juno Award in Canada. During the Bach Anniversary year, she gave complete performances of the 48 Preludes and Fugues in Canada, the United States, England, and Germany. She has performed throughout North America and Europe, as well as in Japan, Australia, China, Mexico, and the former Soviet Union.

Born into a musical family (her father was the Cathedral organist in Ottawa, Canada), Miss Hewitt began her piano studies at the age of three, performing in public at four, and a year later winning her first scholarship. In her formative years, she also studied violin, recorder, singing, and classical ballet. At nine, she gave her first recital at Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music where she studied form 1964-73. Miss Hewitt then studied with French pianist, Jean-Paul Sevilla, at the University of Ottawa from which she earned her Bachelor of Music degree at the age of eighteen.

Prior to her Toronto Bach Competition victory, Angela Hewitt placed First in Italy's Viotti Competition (1978) and was a top prizewinner in the International Bach competitions of Leipzig and Washington, D.C., as well as the Schumann Competition in Zwickau, the Casadesus Competition in Cleveland, and the Dino Ciani Competition at La Scala, Milan.

Miss Hewitt's repertoire is vast, ranging from Bach to the contemporary. For CBC Records, she has recorded the Spanish Dances of Granados, and in 1998 Hyperion released a single disc devoted to the works of Olivier Messiaen. This year she begins recording the complete solo works of Ravel. She has performed with orchestras across the United States, with the Japan Philharmonic, and with every major orchestra in Canada and Australia. In Spring 2001, she made her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Upcoming highlights include performances with the Halle Orchestra, the Toronto, St. Louis, Vancouver, Colorado, and San Diego Symphony Orchestras, and recitals in London (three in Wigmore Hall), Finland's Kuhmo Festival, Germany's Schwtzingen Festival; and recitals in Toronto, Portland, San Francisco, and Cincinnati. Her concerto appearances in the U.K. have included the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall. Her frequent solo recitals have taken her to many of the world's most prestigious venues, including Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., London's Wigmore Hall, Paris' Salle Gaveau, Ottawa's National Arts Centre, Tokyo's Bunka Kaikan, and the Sydney Opera House.

Her lecture-recitals on Bach, and her frequent masterclasses are widely appreciated by students and teachers alike. Dedicated to keeping "live music" alive, she has recently been a founding member of Piano Six–a project involving six Canadian pianists who take music to the rural communities of Canada. In 1995, Angela Hewitt was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Ottawa, and in 1997, she received the Key to the City of Ottawa. She has made her home in London, England since 1985.